Effects of cigarette smoke on the bronchial epithelium of Syrian hamsters: ultrastructural studies.

The effects of two types of research cigarettes, which differed in their total smoke delivery and condensate, on the bronchial epithelium of Syrian hamsters were examined electronmicroscopically. The animals were exposed once a day for 5 days each week for 1 year to the total smoke of the cigarettes. Two groups and a control group were killed 1 day after the last exposure, and one group 12 months after the last exposure. The bronchial epithelia of all smoke-exposed animals were hyperplastic, and their ultrastructure showed invaginations, tilt of nuclear axes, an increase in the number and size of lysosomes and multivesiculated bodies, and increased numbers of enlarged intramitochondrial granules. Squamous metaplasia, rarely found, was present at the stage of filamentous bundle formation. The induced alterations were independent of the type of cigarette used. One year after smoking was terminated, the alterations had neither reversed nor advanced, as compared to those occurring 1 day after the last smoke exposure.